WALKING WITH DINOSAURS

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS gives you beautiful images of dinosaur herds and a surprisingly earnest message about self-sacrifice and defending others. Its high-quality special effects make the prehistoric world vivid, while its story follows Patchi, a young pachyrhinosaurus, through childhood, migration, danger, and love.

That realism is also the cost. Dinosaurs repeatedly fight to avoid becoming meals, and Patchi’s father is killed while trying to protect Patchi and his brother. The violence of nature can be disconcerting for children, especially because the creatures look more real than cartoon characters. The voices and story can also feel corny.

If your family loves dinosaurs, this is worth seeing with discernment. For young children prone to nightmares, choose something gentler.

A paleontologist takes two children on a hunt for bones. A talking bird explains how a dinosaur tooth was broken off and left behind, then becomes a prehistoric companion to Patchi, a very young pachyrhinosaurus.

Patchi grows up with his herd as they migrate across Alaska, facing rival dinosaurs, predators, and the hard realities of survival. Along the way, he forms a love-at-first-sight relationship with Juniper, a female pachyrhinosaurus.

Three stars means this is a good, high-quality family adventure with clear limitations. The CGI is the main attraction. Dinosaur herds and the prehistoric landscape are rendered with striking beauty, and the story remains entertaining.

The realism also makes the predator scenes more disturbing than comparable cartoon fare. The characters can look too real for the voices attached to them, and some of the story and dialogue are corny. The film also pauses to identify each new dinosaur species and explain whether it eats meat or vegetation, sometimes adding quick anatomy lessons about teeth or brain size.

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS presents self-sacrifice and defending others as admirable while rebuking pride and arrogance. Its moral message is slightly redemptive, but the brutality of the food chain overwhelms it at times. Carnivores are not portrayed as evil for eating herbivores; nature is shown as brutal, dirty, and short, with infants, the sick, and the elderly especially vulnerable.

The film does not emphasize evolution theory as some museum exhibits do, but it also does not declare the majesty of God’s creation. Instead, it presents animal existence as violent and futile, then adds human-like moral meaning to the dinosaurs’ choices. That contrast invites viewers to consider the difference between raw survival and the dignity of human beings, who are made in God’s image and can speak, create, and show moral concern.

The film’s longing for self-sacrifice and defense of others points beyond survival toward the God who made people for one another. “So God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27).

WALKING WITH DINOSAURS is an entertaining, visually impressive adventure with a worthwhile message about self-sacrifice. Its realistic battles and predator attacks may be too disturbing for young children. For dinosaur-loving middle schoolers and older viewers, it is WORTH THE TRIP — MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP.